Talk:Evolvability

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Untitled[edit]

This article is just a dicdef... I don;t see it becoming a real article. Someone please figure out if it can be or just redirect it to a more appropriate place. DreamGuy 00:58, 30 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Evolvability is an essential concept of theoretical population genetics and research on genetic algorithms; in population genetics, it is related to plasticity, pleiotropy, epistasis, and mutational robustness. These things should have their own portal! - Samsara 11:19, 30 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I disagree. In fact this article is integral to evolution itself. Evolvability isn't just the definition of the underlying process of evolution, but is itself a survival trait that has been highly adapted over the course of evolution. Evolvability is necesary for survival - species that have a poor ability to evolve would be at the mercy of species that adapt more quickly. Sexual reproduction is an excellent example of evolution for evolvability. Sexual reproduction allows the variation necessary for evolution but without heavy risk of failure - heathly individuals will likely produce a healthy offspring - but importantly that offsping will differ from both parents. This concept needs to be worked into a variety of articles related to evoution. Asdf96 (talk) 16:58, 27 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have now done a MAJOR overhaul of the page, with a large amount of cited new content. Hopefully, it will now evolve some more from this structure in a happier way Joannamasel (talk) 00:29, 29 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Merger proposal[edit]

I propose the merge of Evolutionary Trade-Offs into this document. The examples listed are clearly linked to natural selection and the ability of organisms to respond to selective pressure.Kyle^(talk) 20:32, 5 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I oppose the merger, the topics are distinct. You can have different levels of evolvability for reasons that have nothing to do with tradeoffs, and you can have tradeoffs that have nothing to do with evolvability. Joannamasel (talk) 02:54, 10 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose - I agree with Joannamasel. The concepts are definitely distinct, even though they can strongly affect one another. It may be worthwhile clarifying the distinction in the articles though, since it's a reasonable observation that they're related. T.Shafee(Evo﹠Evo)^talk 11:43, 10 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Closing proposal with no support for the merge. Klbrain (talk) 14:45, 24 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

internal homeostasis, developmental homeostasis, sexual recombination/redundancy and niche reduction[edit]

The way to make beneficial genetic changes more likely is to make detrimental changes less detrimental and the the organism more robust to detrimental changes. The genetic changes that made the human infant a noisy, slow, weak incompetent organism, were made less detrimental by the niche reduction of parental care. The young human did not have to be evolutionarily fit throughout growth and development and in a variety of environments, but just within the niche of parental care, until viable at adulthood. The redundant genes at every location involved allow genetic variation to accumulate until it might prove beneficial or detrimental in new combinations or environments. Internal homeostasis through active metabolism and related partially redundant pathways, allow genetic variation to be tolerated and yet viable conditions maintained. Families of related enzymes from past genome replications are an example of this evolability. Developmental homeostasis enables a genetic change in, for example, bone length to be survivable. It won't fail because changes in the genes for the length of blood vessels, muscles and nerves did not simultaneously happen. A change in genetic or enviromentally caused bone length can be accomodated by the robustness of the developmental process. Far from being merged with other articles, Evolvability is arguably one of the most important concepts for understanding and communicating evolution. The major breakthrough in evolution was evolving evolvability. Evolution was probably a slow process until enough evolvability had accumulated. I think these topics are not covered well enough (some not at all) in the article, and expansion under this topic is warranted. Poodleboy (talk) 19:08, 16 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Here are quotes and a useful reference that may serve as a starting point:

"Many amphibian and reptile taxa experience dramatic shifts in their environment through development, essentially having to function in different niches. For instance, the komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) begins life as an arboreal predator of small insects, progressively moves onto larger insects, small vertebrates and eggs, then larger vertebrates and eventually fills a terrestrial large predator/scavenger niche (Auffenberg, 1981). Mutations providing a potential fitness advantage at any point along this continuum may be deleterious somewhere else during growth. This effect is less in mammals and birds because they typically feed their young until they can occupy the adult niche. ... Compared with other vertebrates, mammals and birds are also notable for an increased emphasis on homeostasis, particularly endothermy (Ruben, 1995), so stabilising internal biochemical and physiological conditions. Both effects, reducing the range of niches during development and stabilising internal conditions, should enhance morphological evolvability. Indeed, while mammals and birds have diversified into widely different niches and morphologies from their ancestors that shared the planet with dinosaurs 65 million years ago, amphibians, turtles, lepidosaurs (snakes and lizards) and crocodilians typically have not (Benton, 1993). " [1]

Poodleboy (talk) 07:44, 19 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Overspecialized species have decreased evolvability, thus higher probability of extinction[edit]

colibrí, hummingbird
also some philosophical doctrines

Evolutability; synonym on Cambridge Dictionary[edit]

Imagehttps://dictionary.cambridge.org › m... main drawback в предложении | Примеры предложений от Cambridge Dictionary - Cambridge University Press The main drawback of this approach is the maintenance, consistency, and evolutability of the knowledge base. Из Cambridge English Corpus. The main drawback ...